3 ms·

"75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less" https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-

"75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less" https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-need-a-cowboy-costume https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-siz...

chrisco255 3y ago
Thanks for the useless hit piece, if you can find the scientific data, I'll evaluate it, but when I click into the links on the article, I'm unable to find it. So we're clear: because surveys are incredibly difficult to do in a scientific way and there's a dozen ways to ask a question that can skew results, there's a hundred ways a journalist can misinterpret the results of that question, and there's a thousand ways you could incorrectly slice the demographics such that your survey skews completely out of sync with the target subject. We want to know what large truck owners are doing with their trucks. We don't care about small truck owners not towing things because small trucks aren't considered to be excessive and truck beds are useful things on their own. Show me the data. Not the spin.
- bombcar 3y ago
  I think many users here would have a heart attack and die to realize how many semis on the road are entirely empty (deadheading) and how many are filled way below capacity. Most truck owners I know use their truck as a truck quite often. But that’s more rural; maybe everyone in a city commutes in an F150 for absolutely no reason at all.
  - chrisco255 3y ago
    > realize how many semis on the road are entirely empty I'm sure semis are empty after they've dropped off a load at a destination and there is no commensurate return load back to where they came from. But given that semis are very expensive to move down the road, both from a human resource cost and an energy cost, I suspect the market is far better at optimizing that than you or I or any central operator could do. Everyone I know that owns F150s use their truck beds or use their hitch to tow. I'm not sure what the big controversy is, except there seems to be a class of urbanites that are convinced they know other people's own needs better than they do. "They don't need a truck," says the Brooklyn blogger, who then proceeds to snark about a foreign micro truck that's normally used to skirt through the narrow streets and alleyways of Tokyo. The blogger has prob never owned acreage, cut lumber, smoked a brisket on-location, or hauled a load, but they know for sure that these silly Americans don't need a truck that's any bigger than a Prius.
    - bombcar 3y ago
      It’s something like 33% are deadheading.
- dyno12345 3y ago
  it's more evidence than you've provided to back your seemingly strongly held opinions on this subject, which is none
  - chrisco255 3y ago
    No, it's literally just a blogger expressing their opinion based on broken link data that we can't independently evaluate, so it's just as valid as an HN comment.
    - dyno12345 3y ago
      The author has written thousands of car reviews for Car & Driver and Road & Track. I do find a professional automotive journalist citing a source more credible than an HN comment. If you have any better evidence, please share it.

chrisco255 3y ago

Thanks for the useless hit piece, if you can find the scientific data, I'll evaluate it, but when I click into the links on the article, I'm unable to find it. So we're clear: because surveys are incredibly difficult to do in a scientific way and there's a dozen ways to ask a question that can skew results, there's a hundred ways a journalist can misinterpret the results of that question, and there's a thousand ways you could incorrectly slice the demographics such that your survey skews completely out of sync with the target subject. We want to know what large truck owners are doing with their trucks. We don't care about small truck owners not towing things because small trucks aren't considered to be excessive and truck beds are useful things on their own. Show me the data. Not the spin.

bombcar 3y ago
I think many users here would have a heart attack and die to realize how many semis on the road are entirely empty (deadheading) and how many are filled way below capacity. Most truck owners I know use their truck as a truck quite often. But that’s more rural; maybe everyone in a city commutes in an F150 for absolutely no reason at all.
- chrisco255 3y ago
  > realize how many semis on the road are entirely empty I'm sure semis are empty after they've dropped off a load at a destination and there is no commensurate return load back to where they came from. But given that semis are very expensive to move down the road, both from a human resource cost and an energy cost, I suspect the market is far better at optimizing that than you or I or any central operator could do. Everyone I know that owns F150s use their truck beds or use their hitch to tow. I'm not sure what the big controversy is, except there seems to be a class of urbanites that are convinced they know other people's own needs better than they do. "They don't need a truck," says the Brooklyn blogger, who then proceeds to snark about a foreign micro truck that's normally used to skirt through the narrow streets and alleyways of Tokyo. The blogger has prob never owned acreage, cut lumber, smoked a brisket on-location, or hauled a load, but they know for sure that these silly Americans don't need a truck that's any bigger than a Prius.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    It’s something like 33% are deadheading.
dyno12345 3y ago
it's more evidence than you've provided to back your seemingly strongly held opinions on this subject, which is none
- chrisco255 3y ago
  No, it's literally just a blogger expressing their opinion based on broken link data that we can't independently evaluate, so it's just as valid as an HN comment.
  - dyno12345 3y ago
    The author has written thousands of car reviews for Car & Driver and Road & Track. I do find a professional automotive journalist citing a source more credible than an HN comment. If you have any better evidence, please share it.